Bouncer with his head pillowed on my Snowflakes in Cedarwoods shawl. 
I'm about 1/3 of the way through chart J now, with only one more body chart to go. There are approximately a gazillion sts on the needle. And more to come. Then the endless, endless edging.
/sigh/
So last week we went to Jekyll Island, GA with Jasper and Bouncer. This is the second year we've taken these two dogs with us. We left Lucky (the dog I inherited from my dad) with my sister. (He did very well there!)
I made the pictures small cuz there's a lot of them. Click on them to embiggen and/or go to the Flickr set.
We got to the campground and got set up Monday afternoon:
It was pretty buggy (ewww, ticks). Thank Og for heavy-duty insect repellent. Dear Robert actually got some pictures of me and the dogs this year. Jasper and I both have head-tilt here.
Then, of course, we set off for the beach. Much dog running and splashing in the surf ensued. Bouncer's always a little behind Jasper. At 11 1/2, he's not quite as spry as he used to be, but he really tries.
There was reading and resting. And knitting, though nothing significant.
We saw a few other animals. (There was also apparently a huge raccoon party about 6:00 Thursday am. They woke us up chittering and chirping and making racket. Amazingly, the dogs did NOT bark.)
We went walking other places beside the beach:
There was digging,
swimming,
jumping for a ball (notice Bouncer barking on the left):
and making sand angels.
Dogs got wet and sandy (and so did we):
We saw late afternoon vistas
Pawprints on the beach
And dogs who think they can drive.
It was a good trip.
Out of the snowflakes (mostly) and into the trees.
Snowflakes in Cedarwoods. Chart F completed, and 10 rows into chart G. Over 700 sts on the needles. Yeah, it's a lot of sts, but there'll be lots more before it's done. :) It's an easy knit, though. I did switch to my ludicrously long Addi Lace Turbo needle, and that helped immensely, mostly because it's pointier. I'm not fighting those k2togs and ssks anymore.
And though I can't match ESC with her pictures of stuff on Sadie, we do occasionally put Stuff on Jasper.
Bouncer is bemused. Or maybe disgusted. Or just thinking about something else. :)
Snowflakes on Cedarwoods, Chart B plus a couple of rows of chart C, finished Saturday night:
And a gratuitous Jasper headshot:
I was watching Tarzan on TCM this afternoon. Jasper was watching all the motion on the screen and doing his cute head tilt at Tarzan's yell and Jane's screams and the apes' screeches. He was as entertaining as the movie.
I spent last weekend at the spring spinning guild retreat. We had cool weather, good food (and plenty of it!) and lots of silly laughs and giggles. I actually spun up all the fiber I'd brought with me. (I didn't bring all that much, but I usually WAY over-estimate how much I can do.)
Here's my bobbin:
I also FINALLY had time to use my Tabacheck Tibetan Spindle with the spindle bowl I got from Knitwitch.
Top view:
Side view:
As you can see, it has a little foot on the bottom. This GREATLY increases the stability of the bowl. I've spun with spindle bowls that lacked this feature, and lemme tell you, it can be a challenge. There's also some non-slip stuff on the bottom, which also helps keep the bowl in place.
It's a little harder to see the indentation in the center of the bowl for the point of your spindle -- another EXCELLENT idea! My previous spindle bowls also lacked this feature. If you've been itching to try a supported spindle, you couldn't do better than to put one of these little bowls under it. My spindle spun like a dream with it. Thanks to KnitWitch for a great product! Highly recommended.
I do have dog news. My dad had a dog named Lucky. Lucky kept Dad company for most of the last 9 years. When my dad died, it pretty much fell on me to take Lucky in, since I'm the dog person in the family.
Lucky was both spoiled and fat. And when I say fat, I mean FAAAAAAAAATTT. According to Dad's vet, Lucky weighed 70 lbs. at one point. And Lucky is smaller than Jasper or Bouncer. Jeezopete.
So Lucky's been on a strict diet. He's losing weight, and honestly, he's fitting into the pack here pretty well considering he's never lived with anyone other than my dad, and never had to get along with other dogs before. He's a bit of a resource guarder, but we're working on that.
So here's my pack as it stands right now. L - R: Lucky, Bouncer, and Jasper. I am WAY outnumbered by the males in my household.
Y'all have GOT to see this video of a dog playing in the snow.
We certainly don't get snow like this in my part of the world. :)
He's home!
Hunter, Shirley Chong's service dog, was picked up by Shirley and her husband this morning. He appearx to be mostly well, though very footsore. He'll be checked out by the vet today.
An absolutely amazing and humbling campaign was carried out by volunteers and members of the Clicktrain mailing list. People faxed flyers, contacted tv and radio stations, hired pet hunters and trackers. And it worked. Hunter's home.
The internet and its people amaze me sometimes.
ETA: Here's an article on Hunter's return.
Welcome home, Hunter!
Not diarrhea, poop!
For the last two days, poor Bouncer has been plagued by two people who follow him around when he goes out into the back yard* to do his business. At night, this involves shining a flashlight on his butt whenever he makes any kind of squatting motion. But this morning, the vigilance paid off -- poop! Boo diarrhea -- YAY POOP!**
Bouncer started acting a little more like his normal self yesterday. He and Jasper normally trade off dish-cleaning duty, but Bouncer's been feeling so bad lately he hasn't been licking ANY plates. Friday night, though, I was finishing up a bowl of cereal. When my spoon scraped the bottom of the bowl, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was Bouncer, coming up as usual to help clean up. He was still on a fast, so he couldn't get it, but it did my heart good to see that he WANTED to eat again.
We started giving him water and a little food at a time yesterday, and watching how he did. So far, so good. The acid test will be if the improvement continues.
But so far, so good! Yay Bouncer!
*I automatically typed "yarn" the first time. Heh.
**Anyone else struck by the incongruity of cheering for dog shit? :D
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